So the first two games in the Champions League kicked off last night after the winter break and both games ended successfully for the English clubs.

Manchester City went to Basel in Switzerland and came away with a 0-4 victory. Neither the scoreline nor the result were much of a surprise, with respect to Basel they aren't much better than a play off chasing Championship side. City have already booked their place in the quarter finals with the return leg a formality.

Spurs took to warmer climes and Italy, visiting the old lady of Turin, Juventus. As you would expect, this game would be a closer affair though Juve haven't proven to be the force they were in previous seasons.

A great deal of naivety from both sides was the main theme here. Spurs possibly over-awed by their oppponent's exaggerated reputation started guardedly and were punished before even beginning to settle, going down by two goals within 8 minutes of kick off. The first coming from a lovely half volley from Higuain who'd cut Spurs defence in half, the second from a penalty after a rash challenge from Spurs defender Davis in the box with Higuain converting from the spot.

Spurs were at sixes and sevens for a while after that but as the half wore on began to gain their composure helped mainly by Juve's typical Italian tactic of sitting back and defending the lead until the end. I can only think they hadn't done their homework on Premier league sides or Spurs in particular.

Sitting back might work in Italy and Europe against the quality of sides they meet on a weekly basis, it might work with 15 minutes left in a game, it was never going to after less than 10 minutes played against a Premier league side like Spurs who are renowned for being slow starters but have the engine and grit to press and make chances for the whole 90 minutes.

And so it proved, when Spurs talisman Harry Kane pulled a goal back for the Londoners on 35 minutes after some concerted pressure, the complexion of the game turned completely and it was now Juventus turn to panic.

As the first half closed though, all of Spurs good work in clawing back the game was almost undone by their defender Serge Aurier who made a silly and un-necessary challenge in the box bringing down a Juve attacker resulting in the second penalty award of the night.

Fortunately for Spurs, Higuain didn't get his hat-rick for the night as he hit the ball hard and high and it ricocheted off the crossbar, possibly with the slightest of fingertips from Lloris, and the whistle blew for half time remaining 2-1 to the home team.

Spurs came out much brighter for the second half, almost the opposite of Juventus who now looked rattled as Spurs relentless pressure was affording the Italians little chance to break out and counter as the half wore on, if in fact that was what they wanted to do. The Londoners were rewarded for their dogged persistence with 20 minutes to go with a nice Eriksen goal, levelling the score at 2-2.

Juventus rallied a little at the end but the score remained the same, with Spurs taking a pair of precious away goals home with them for the second leg.

So unless Spurs fuck it all up at Wembley in the home leg, which seems unlikely, Spurs probably booked their quarter final slot last night.

So it looks as if UEFA are bringing their two competitions into line later on, with Liverpool the only English side featuring tonight as they travel to Porto for their first leg. Manchester United's visit to Seville and Chelsea's home game against Barcelona for their round of 16 first leg games will wait until this time next week.

Meanwhile in the Europa league, which now looks like an entirely new competition, the clubs will have completed both legs of their round of 32 and round of 16 games by the time the Champions league quarter finalists are decided, leaving both competitions at the same stage by end of March.

Arsenal will play Ostersunds on Thursday and the return leg the following week and with the league cup final on the 25th, the Gunners don't play another Premier league game until the 1st of March.

Like Manchester City the night before, Liverpool booked their place in the Champions league quarter finals with an emphatic 0-5 victory over Porto in northern Portugal last night, with their home leg in a fortnights time now having become a dead rubber.

The Portuguese champions though spirited were no match for the Premier league side in this one-sided affair, as the gulf between Europe's elite leagues and the rest gets ever wider. One time winners of the competition under Jose Mourinho, this Porto side was another who would fair reasonably well in our second tier league no more than that, so again the scoreline and result wasn't unexpected.

In the other game last night, Real Madrid once again struggled with their aging side against the most expensively assembled team in football, PSG though you wouldn't have thought it.

Although PSG took the lead they couldn't improve on it as Madrid tried frantically to avoid a home defeat in front of a full house. Neither side were impressive but the marginally better pressure applied by the home side paid off with the award of a penalty on the stroke of half time, ably converted by Ronaldo.

The second half was much the same as the first, lots of dashing about but few decent, threatening moves by either side as it looked as though the 1-1 result would keep until the end. However Madrid after a rare bout of concerted pressure by the French side broke away and the resulting move saw Ronaldo fumble the ball over the line to take the lead with 7 minutes to go. With the French side now reeling from the goal, 3 minutes later Madrid defender Marcelo hit a half shot to nothing at the goal as the French keeper made a poor effort to stop it, giving the Spanish a final 3-1 victory.

On last night's display, neither of these so called giants of European football look like serious finalists or champions.

Being an Arsenal supporter I'm well used to the phrase 'sods law' because over the years it's been applied to the Gunners many times.

Having spent the past 20 years in the champions league, facing some of the strongest clubs in Europe when they were at their prime, we failed to qualify in the first year the final selection of clubs in the last 16 are the weakest they've been in living memory.

With all five English clubs looking set to qualify for the quarter finals there are no European clubs fit to challenge them with the exception of Barcelona, the rest being either 'over the hill' having seen far better days or simply still there by luck.

Likewise, being the only English participent left in the Europa league, it seems the best of Europe have either dropped into or are still in the competition which will make it doubly hard to qualify for the champions league as winners.

With the likes of AC Milan, Atletico Madrid, Athletico Bilbao, Borussia Dortmund, Dynamo Kiev, Lazio, Lyon, Marseille, Napoli, Real Sociedad, Sporting Lisbon, Villarreal and Zenit St Petersburg, amongst those all vying for the trophy, it's going to be a hell of a fight to get to the final.

Arsenal arrived in northern Sweden yesterday for this afternoon's 5:30pm UK time kick off against the Swedish minnows, Ostersunds FK.

I don't know whether Arsene Wenger still harbours hopes of champions league football by way of the top four because he certainly hasn't taken a squad which breeds confidence of a concerted Europa league challenge.

There are certain players missing which have been expected, Lacazette is out for 4-6 weeks after having knee surgery, Ramsey is still nursing a groin strain and Aubameyang isn't eligable because of some ridiculous UEFA ruling.

Add to those though, some more dubious omissions like Wilshere and Koscielny, both seemingly under the weather and in keeping with his philosophy of 'cup goalkeepers' Petr Cech hasn't travelled either.

So now without Giroud or Walcott avaibable because he sold them, we will be left with the underwhelming talents of Iwobi and Welbeck leading the line.

I suppose we have to give Wenger the benefit of the doubt but with his almost nonchalant approach to this competition so far it's hard to be totally convinced. If any player is really fit they should be playing tonight, it's not as if we have a build up of games, our next games are this return leg in a weeks time then the League Cup final four day later.

Wenger has warned his players to be prepared for the conditions later, as temperatures are set to drop to -5c by kick off.

I'm beginning to think a draw will be acceptable due to the conditions - below freezing temperatures and artificial pitch, plus a depleted squad. That's shocking to hear about Lacazette, I thought tonight would be ideal for him to get his confidence back. Iwobi and Welbeck doesn't inspire confidence, but even they have to play half decent at some point. Whatever they do tonight, it won't take away how awful they are overall. I can see one of them scoring a goal or two then earning an extended run in the team as a result.

A lot of fans getting on Iwobi's back now - after the Spurs game when the players went to the supporters, he was grinning and laughing and waving at a guest in the players lounge, and doing that 'phone me' thing with his hand, like he'd just scored the winning goal in the cup final, instead of playing like a uselesss c**t in a 0-1 defeat.

Ostersund, recently promoted from the Swedish third division, through the second, up to the first. have an English manager, an artificial pitch, and a ground capacity of just 9,000.

Known as the 'Winter City', the only news I can find out about the town, is that they recently had to cancel 'Earth Hour' - a festival whereby they turn the lights off for an hour - due to a rape and sexual assault spree by migrants, leaving the locals scared of the dark. Let's hope the floodlights don't pack in.

I'm beginning to think a draw will be acceptable due to the conditions - below freezing temperatures and artificial pitch, plus a depleted squad. That's shocking to hear about Lacazette, I thought tonight would be ideal for him to get his confidence back. Iwobi and Welbeck doesn't inspire confidence, but even they have to play half decent at some point. Whatever they do tonight, it won't take away how awful they are overall. I can see one of them scoring a goal or two then earning an extended run in the team as a result.

A lot of fans getting on Iwobi's back now - after the Spurs game when the players went to the supporters, he was grinning and laughing and waving at a guest in the players lounge, and doing that 'phone me' thing with his hand, like he'd just scored the winning goal in the cup final, instead of playing like a uselesss c**t in a 0-1 defeat.

Ostersund, recently promoted from the Swedish third division, through the second, up to the first. have an English manager, an artificial pitch, and a ground capacity of just 9,000.

Known as the 'Winter City', the only news I can find out about the town, is that they recently had to cancel 'Earth Hour' - a festival whereby they turn the lights off for an hour - due to a rape and sexual assault spree by migrants, leaving the locals scared of the dark. Let's hope the floodlights don't pack in.

Yeah, I should have said the BT coverage starts at 5:30pm.

Perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea if the lights did go out for 20 minutes or so, maybe a good arse raping for Iwobi will do him the power of good.

I don't think anything will improve him. He's just a very average player, Championship level at best. I don't see anything about him that warrants him being at the club. Nothing about his ability, style of play, attitude, nothing. He runs like he's got his boot laces tied together.

Of course, he'll probably go on to score a hat-trick now. But even so, he is fucking useless. On Arsenal TV, he quite often gets 0 out of 10 in the player ratings.

Red Okktober wrote:I don't think anything will improve him. He's just a very average player, Championship level at best. I don't see anything about him that warrants him being at the club. Nothing about his ability, style of play, attitude, nothing. He runs like he's got his boot laces tied together.

Of course, he'll probably go on to score a hat-trick now. But even so, he is fucking useless. On Arsenal TV, he quite often gets 0 out of 10 in the player ratings.

I'm not saying there is anything in it but if you look back at Wengers history he's always had a thing about big black boys.

I'm beginning to think a draw will be acceptable due to the conditions - below freezing temperatures and artificial pitch, plus a depleted squad. That's shocking to hear about Lacazette, I thought tonight would be ideal for him to get his confidence back. Iwobi and Welbeck doesn't inspire confidence, but even they have to play half decent at some point. Whatever they do tonight, it won't take away how awful they are overall. I can see one of them scoring a goal or two then earning an extended run in the team as a result.

A lot of fans getting on Iwobi's back now - after the Spurs game when the players went to the supporters, he was grinning and laughing and waving at a guest in the players lounge, and doing that 'phone me' thing with his hand, like he'd just scored the winning goal in the cup final, instead of playing like a uselesss c**t in a 0-1 defeat.

Ostersund, recently promoted from the Swedish third division, through the second, up to the first. have an English manager, an artificial pitch, and a ground capacity of just 9,000.

Known as the 'Winter City', the only news I can find out about the town, is that they recently had to cancel 'Earth Hour' - a festival whereby they turn the lights off for an hour - due to a rape and sexual assault spree by migrants, leaving the locals scared of the dark. Let's hope the floodlights don't pack in.

Fucking hell did you just repeat that satire post about Earth Hour being cancelled.Thanks for confirming only the very stupid fall for satire thinking it is a cast iron fact.